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FIs' profit-taking in pivotals and uncertainty over insurance, patent bills hammer Sensex down 63 points to 2927.48

Profit-taking by leading institutional investors in pivotals at the Bombay Stock Exchange pushed down the BSE Sensex by about 63 points today.

Barring a few scrips like ACC, Zee Telefilms and Raymonds, the market witnessed a downtrend across the board, dealers said and added that UTI and LIC were the major sellers today. Among the foreign institutional investors, Morgan Stanley has made heavy buying in selected scrips.

According to analysts, the leading institutional investors pressed sales in view of likely delay in introducing Patents Bill in Parliament. They were also cautious about passing of the insurance bill introduced in Parliament today.

Market opened late by an hour at 1100 hrs due to some snag in the BOLT system.

Reflecting the bearish phase, the 30-scrip BSE Sensex opened at 2968.35 points, touched the day's high of 2974.08, fell to the day's low of 2926.36 and closed at 2927.48 points showing a net loss of 62.96 points from the previous close of 2990.44 points.

The broad-based BSE-100 index declined sharply by 27.90 points to 1294.89 points from the previous close of 1322.79 points.

The BSE-200 and Dollex indices also eased by 5.63 and 2.15 points to 300.06 and 117.35 points as against the previous close of 305.69 and 119.50 points respectively.

Total turnover on the BOLT system stood at Rs 11.12 billion. Satyam Computers topped the list of turnover by registering the highest turnover of Rs 2.77 billion, followed by Pentafour Software Rs 1.64 billion, ITC Rs 1.32 billion, Zee Telefilms Rs 708 million and Reliance Rs 567.8 million.

Other actively traded scrips were SBI (Rs 407.1 million), Telco (Rs 375.5 million), Tisco (Rs 251.7 million), Castrol India (Rs 204.4 million), MTNL (Rs 164.3 million), Bajaj Auto (Rs 161.4 million), Glaxo (Rs 147.3 million), ACC (Rs 139.9 million), Infosys Technologies (Rs 129.5 million) and Hindustan Lever (Rs 123.9 million).

Among the losers, Asian Hotels drifted lower to Rs 150, BHEL by Rs 8.90 to Rs 240.60, BSES to Rs 2.20 to Rs 141.80, Burroughs Welcome Rs 14 to Rs 432.75, Colgate Rs 4.40 to Rs 184, Dr Reddy's Rs 9.50 to Rs 443, German Remedies Rs 18.25 to Rs 593.75, Grasim Rs 1.90 to Rs 163.70, Hero Honda Rs 2.75 to Rs 549, Hindustan Lever Rs 36.25 to Rs 1658.75, Hindalco Rs 16.75 to Rs 502.50, India Hotels Rs 17 to Rs 356.25, Infosys Technologies Rs 44.50 to Rs 2586.75, ITC Rs 18.50 to Rs 694.50, L&T Rs 3.20 to Rs 146.40, Mahindra and Mahindra Rs 3.40 to Rs 155.10, NIIT Rs 8 to Rs 1471, Pentafour Software Rs 3.75 to Rs 477.25, Satyam Computers Rs 2.25 to Rs 116, Telco Rs 2.20 to Rs 138 and Tisco 80 paise to Rs 99.70.

Cement giant ACC gained by Rs 4.25 to Rs 869.25, Raymond looked up by 35 paise to Rs 84.90. However, the scrip was further up by Rs 3 to Rs 87 in kerb deals, dealers said, while Zee Telefilms closed higher by Rs 15.75 to Rs 554.

FIIs reported an outflow of Rs 20 million on the BSE while the Indian financial institutional investors have reported a net purchases worth Rs 10 million.

The FIIs and Indians financial institutions have also reported a net outflow of Rs 140 million at the National Stock Exchange.

UNI

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